Azure AppFabric Cache can't work together with Windows Appfabric

Azure appfabric distributed cache is very important for managing state in distributed applications. (I will talk about it in details in my next post) but it has a little unpleasant surprise.

It does not work side by side with Windows Server AppFabric !

If you previously installed Windows Server AppFabric, you must uninstall it before installing the AppFabric CTP SDK. These on-premise and cloud versions of AppFabric are not compatible at this time.

When both are installed Windows Azure Appfabric SDK will use Windows Server AppFabric Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Caching.xxx installed in the GAC instead of the original SDK assemblies.

The configuration will not be parsed correctly. The API will throw MethodNotFound exceptions… nothing works.

I was really unhappy to uninstall Windows Server AppFabric. I hope in the near future both will be able to leave in peace together on my machine.

Manu